The Real Threat to National Security Isn’t the Press – The Contrarian

The Real Threat to National Security Isn’t the Press  The Contrarian

Hegseth can make reporting on him more difficult, but he can’t stop it. Last month, The Intercept reported that the Pentagon confirmed it maintains a blacklist of reporters who ask questions its leaders don’t like. It’s the latest attack on press freedom by a Pentagon that is retreating deeper into secrecy, even as it plunges the country deeper into foreign conflict, and not for the first time in history. As early as 1966, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara had concluded the Vietnam War was unwinnable. He concealed those doubts and the war’s mounting costs and failures while continuing to sink the United States deeper into a quagmire. Not all military failures occur on the battlefield.

They can also start when leaders convince themselves the public doesn’t deserve the truth. One man appears determined to relearn that lesson the hard way, and he’s sitting in McNamara’s chair today. In between hurling insults at individual reporters, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s communications team likes to brag that it is “the most transparent” the Pentagon has ever been. Hardly. Since arriving at the Pentagon, Hegseth has systematically obstructed nearly every avenue through which the press — and, by extension, the American public — can understand what its military is doing. Let’s consider the record. After being promoted from cable TV host to leading the largest